Lee Enfield .303 india drill rifle. restore? not restore? in The Lee Enfield Forum Forum

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Lee Enfield .303 india drill rifle. restore? not restore?

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lfalk	Lee Enfield .303 india drill rifle. restore? not restore?	Lead	[-]
Posts: 6 May 8 13 12:51 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tags : None I purchased a LE No1 MkIII india drill rifle for what I thought is cheap. I know nothing about them, other than it shoots a British round and it was used by the british in the great wars. This rifle has DP stamped on all the wood pieces and the reciever and barrel. The reciever and bolt as well as the wood pieces are stamped with matching numbers (2830). I took the gun to school (gunsmith school). The firing pin had been cut and the cut piece jambed in the pin hole. I replaced the pin and cleaned out the barrel and action, bought a magazine and fired it. It seems to shoot fine and is pretty acurate for not sitting it in. The wood is old and it looks like it as sat for a very long time. It has a white stripe around the forend stocks and what looks like a red splotch about the size of a dime that has ran down toward the recieverend for an inch or so. it is forward of the white stripe. I heard the color codes for green yellow and red, but not white. My question I guess is should I try to sand down the wood and clean up the metal resoring the wood with BLO? or just leave it in it's original dark color. I will try to get pics if I can figure out how to do it. Any suggestions or opinions would be helpful. Thanks
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Ed Novak		#1	[-]
Posts: 4317 May 8 13 1:08 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	"DP" - Drill Purpose graded rifles are sold as NON-FIRING arms and you WILL NOT find a knowledgeable and skilled person who values his and others' safety going along with your intent to fire this rifle. Removing the red and white paint from your rifle's wood and leaving that wood on the rifle could put you into some serious legal difficulty if some is injured by using the rifle. There have been, literally, hours of posting on this and other LE sites regarding Drill Purpose rifles. Review this forums archive for the input of Peter Laidler on this issue. The white paint is part of the DP marking scheme. The Australian scheme: Red: Never fire under any circumstances. Yellow: Ball ammunition use advised against but permissible if absolutely necessary. Green: Rifle is of normal condition and safe for firing ball ammunition. There is no apparent "cross-over" wrt the paint schemes used by various countries. ed NRA Endowment member LECS #2 Air Force Association Life Member MOAA Member
lfalk	pics I hope.	#2	[-]
Posts: 6 May 8 13 1:22 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	here are some of the pics if this works.
lfalk		#3	[-]
Posts: 6 May 8 13 1:23 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I guess the pics didn't work out. I will read up on this issue. thanks
lfalk		#4	[-]
Posts: 6 May 8 13 4:38 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I hope you don't think I want to do an unsafe thing with this rifle. I fixed it and shot it before I saw on here that Drill purpose rifles were not to be fired anymore. Someone on here stated that some were just stamped and for no bad reasons, they just needed drill rifles. I was hoping to findout what could be done to make it beter. I have been researching to find out what it all means and how to check if it is unsafe. I did take it to school where I fixed it and test shot it. I have put 10 rounds through it already. I won't be shooting it again untill I find out more info. I have not been able to find the archives here as I am new to this site andI haven't figured it all out yet. Thanks for your imput.
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lfalk	I need more info help with this LE no1 mkIII	#5	[-]
Posts: 6 May 8 13 4:46 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I haven't been able to find the archived info on DP india mkIII's, or Peter Laidler. I am new here an haven't found my way around yet. What can I do to check it to see if it can be salvaged; or do I just destroy it to keep someone else from having troubles with it? I only have $150 in it so far. I guess that is a cheap enough lesson if i can't salvage it. Thanks help so far. I still haven't got my pics to work.
Ed Novak		#6	[-]
Posts: 4317 May 9 13 1:45 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Ifalk: Read the post and string by "Chu Lai" just introduced, "DP'd bolt" and the responses, including the copied Peter Laidler post. I've been owning (a few dozen) and shooting No.1s, No.4s and No.5s since 1962. My four kids each own No.4s that I gave to them. I am not an "expert" wrt the LE by any stretch of imagination and I know of no one claiming to be so, not even Peter Laidler. Possibly Skennerton? My point here is that you may have safely fired 10 rounds through your DPd LE, I will guess that you don't know WHY the rifle was DPd and that is the crux of the problem for me. I once bought a run-of-the-mill Lithgow with matching action-body and bolt from a fine Christian man who wanted to use the money to help pay his mission work. Paid $140 for the rifle which had a dark bore with good rifling and on tear-down was found to have yellow paint under the nose cap and closer inspection of the wood near the muzzle revealed slightly "punk" wood - typical of a "yellow cadet" that had had its yellow "nose paint" removed with something probably like acetone. When I confronted the seller, he admitted that he was the second U. S. owner and believed that the rifle came to the first U. S. owner from a well-known U. S. milsurp dealer. At end of our email conversations he asked if I had noticed the red paint embedded in the wood-grain of the butt-stock wrist? It took a bright light and a magnifying lens to find it. The question then - was it a yellow cadet or a red cadet, parts from each? Heck of a difference in the two with respect to my intention to use the rifle. I wound up giving the rifle to a gentleman, along with the caveats of everything that I knew about the rifle. I believe that the rifle is now a wall-hanger. What to do? Some folks would say that your rifle held up for 10 rounds so it probably is OK to shoot. "Probably" is not what I would want to hear but, in truth, there are likely tens of thousands of LEs that are "probably OK" to shoot and, frankly, I don't recall the last time a LE came apart in the shooters' hands with "reasonable" loads. Still... NRA Endowment member LECS #2 Air Force Association Life Member MOAA Member
Nose Dive		#7	[-]
Posts: 231 05/12/13 11:09 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I agree with Ed. If it is marked, 'don't shoot'. I certainly wouldn't do it. My eyes are old and getting foggy, but their the only pair I have been issued so I try to maintain a behavior pattern that supports their longevity. Nose Dive. Cheap, Fast, Good. Kindly pick two.
A square 10		#8	[-]
Posts: 1920 05/16/13 02:22 PM Veteran member Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	and eds recomendation to read that other thread is a very good one as well In these times 'I'll keep my God, my freedom, my gun and my money. Anyone that supports this insanity can keep "THE CHANGE".
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